


Lactose Intolerance

by pcctheant



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adorable Adam, Cute Adam, Implied Sexual Content, Indian Adam, M/M, Nervous Shiro, Pining Shiro (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron) is a Mess, brief angst, implied klance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 12:11:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17100350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pcctheant/pseuds/pcctheant
Summary: "Every asian is, to some degree, lactose intolerant." -My sisterShiro is asian. Keith is asian. Lactose intolerance? Lactose intolerance. Suffering summed up in dairy.





	Lactose Intolerance

1\. 

The first time Shiro’s stomach hurt was when he drank 6 glasses of milk during dinner. At that time, his father told him something that he would carry with him forever. “Every Asian is, to some degree, lactose intolerant.” However, Shiro was determined to grow taller and stronger in case he met any aliens when he flew to the stars. He also decided to mix his milk with sugar and coffee creamer so he would be encouraged to drink more. His mother supported his actions, even if his stomach hurt, and Shiro was determined to make his mother proud. Even if after each time he would spend hours in pain and going to the bathroom. 

Shiro always studied. It was all he ever did. The stars could wait for him, but he wouldn’t wait for the chance to go to space. He would jump at the mere mention of space and excelled in Science and Math. Each night he would look outside his window at the stars. It helped to know that the stars he looked at in California were the same stars that he had looked at in Japan. He would always miss the quietness of his home town and the way he could see every star. Here, in California, it was hard to see the stars with his bare eyes as they were faint. They weren’t the strong lights that Shiro had first seen in Japan, but they were the same stars. The same stars that he would always love. 

Over time, his mother became more and more impatient with him. He felt like a burden and would try harder. However, it was hard to not notice that some of his attempts began to fall flat. His mother would shout that they were a waste of time and that he was supposed to better. His father would stand to the side, quiet and subdued. He knew they loved him, but at times it was hard to believe that. But he pushed those thoughts aside and focused on more studying. He would keep working harder and harder past the limits that he set. It was unhealthy, he knew that, but he didn’t care. All he wanted was to go to space. To see what was there. To reach out to the stars that he had seen in Japan. Maybe his mother would be proud of him then. 

Eventually he was accepted into the Garrison, an elite flight school that was only for some of the best. When he had received the letter, he was ecstatic. He couldn’t contain his excitement. He had forgotten that his mother was in the room until she spoke up. She told him that he did well and the shine in her eyes told him that she was proud and loved him. The look in her eyes took away all the doubt that clouded his head and he hugged her. He was told that he would have to work harder than before, but Shiro thought it would be worth it just to see the same look in mother’s eyes when he would finally go to space. 

2\. 

Shiro was stressed which wasn’t surprising. It was true that the curriculum was hard, but Shiro thought it wasn’t that bad. Just a bit tedious. Side note, Shiro hated things that were tedious. He wanted to do things that were straight forward and not clouded with the useless mumbo-jumbo used to confuse pilots. It was especially hard because English was his second language. He wasn’t the best at understanding some concepts, but he eventually rose to become the top of his class. However, things didn’t get easier from there. They only seem to get harder. 

Shiro missed the old days when he was a pro at multi-tasking and not procrastinating. It seemed the further he got in the Garrison the more he procrastinated. It didn’t make sense and at the same time made sense. That ended with him being up at ridiculous hours of the night working on some stupid project on a topic he already understood and could teach. It was a miracle if he wasn’t stressed. Unfortunately, he took a long time with coloring. He honestly never understood the importance of it and was obsessed with making sure that his coloring was neat. Darn his perfectionist tendencies. He absolutely hated coloring. The project that he was working on had a lot of small details to color. It was a simple assignment of building a model of the solar system. Of course, Shiro just had to overcomplicate things and not only build the solar system, but he also decided to do a galaxy. Why? Because he just loved to torture himself. He hadn’t even started on the labels and summaries he had to write. So, he faithfully ignored the headache he had and continued to slave away. 

Eventually the headache became too much, and he had to find some way to get rid of it. Sadly, he wasn’t allowed headache medicine. They only had a fridge, desks, and beds in the small dorm. His roommate was asleep, thankfully, and he wouldn’t be able to exit the dorm because it was after curfew. This limited him to what was in the dorm. Curiously, he looked in the fridge for something to distract him from the pain. Alcohol would’ve been great. Block out the headache pain with other pain. Unfortunately, he wasn’t allowed alcohol because he was underage. Then he saw it. His solution. Milk. 

He couldn’t feel his headache anymore. Just the pain in his stomach which hurt almost just as much, but Shiro did not decide to suffer through this pain just for nothing. He was using this as an opportunity to work. Saying a silent apology to his roommate for drinking his milk, he got back to work. 

When he turned in the project, he knew that the teacher was impressed. It was always impressive. There was no way that he would be able to do average. If he did then no one would be impressed anymore. One moment of weakness and all that he had built would collapse with a single hit. He wouldn’t be able to rebuild it. A ruined empire. Lost in history. All he could do to protect his kingdom was to wait. Just wait for his chance to arrive. His chance to go to space. 

3\. 

Why? Why was he so precious? Just perfect. Shiro usually wasn’t one to talk about cute boys. That was a given. He just didn’t have time. But for this boy he would create time. Plus, this cute boy wasn’t a jerk like other cute boys. Really cute and maybe, just maybe, Shiro had a teensy-eensy-weensy crush on this cute boy. No big deal. He had gotten over cute boys before. 

Never mind, it was a big deal. It was rapidly becoming the biggest thing in his life. Not that he was mad about that. He knew he should be. His parents had taught him that emotions were a waste of time. Over the years, he had learned how to push them aside and focus on work. Now he was blatantly ignoring his teaching and focusing on something more important. Which just so happened to be a cute boy. Named Adam. Which was a very cute name. Which made sense. Because he was a cute boy. That’s some solid logic. Maybe he also had a cute smile? That would make so much sense. Sadly, he was short and unattractive because he was too lazy to work out and he didn’t drink milk to grow taller. His goal was to at least grow as tall, maybe even taller, than Adam. That would make him more attractive, right? There was no way that a boy that cute was straight. At that moment, he saw Adam blushing because of the guy next to him and it was adorable. It also confirmed that he was gay. Which was nice. Very nice. Except for the fact that the boy that made Adam blush wasn’t Shiro. 

Over the year Shiro drank a lot of milk and grew taller. He also began working out and he noticed that the number of stares he got steadily increased. Almost everyone would stop for at least a second to sneak a glance. Except for Adam. Which was most definitely sad seeing how his stomach suffered from the amount of milk he was drinking. It was not fun. At all. 

Obviously, Adam wouldn’t notice him unless Shiro made the first move. Which was not going to great. What did you expect? That Shiro would approach him smoothly and flirt excessively? Unless you haven’t been paying attention for the last 1,464 (not including the number and these words but including the other numbers) words, you would know that Shiro had spent too much time studying to be able to know how to talk to people. He only ever talked to the teachers. It was impossible to talk to other students. Much less flirt. So Shiro was sad and drank away his sadness. Not with alcohol, because he still wasn’t old enough, but with milk. That was a bad decision. 

His stomach hurt a lot. He was very thankful that his roommate was not in the room because Shiro would’ve been very embarrassed. He felt so sick that he had to email his teachers that he would be staying in his room and wouldn’t be attending classes for the day. At the end of the day, when his suffering had basically disappeared, and he was just lying on the bed there was a small knock on his door. After he had dragged himself up and opened the door, he was confronted with a very cute person that he had grown very familiar with. Adam. Which explained why the knock was so cute. Everything about him was cute. Absolutely everything. 

“Um. Excuse me. This is Takashi Shirogane’s room, correct?” 

Did Adam just say his name? There was no way his name sounded that nice coming from Adam’s mouth. Wait. What was he doing? He needed to answer! 

“I would enjoy making contact between our lips!” 

Great. He blew it. 

“Um....” 

“Wait. Um. Uh. How are you?” 

“Sir, is this Takashi Shirogane’s room or not?” 

“Uh...Yes! Yes! That is me. Correct. This is the room you are looking for. I am definitely Takashi Shirogane. I am definitely not a stranger.” 

“That doesn’t help you, ‘Takashi Shirogane’.” 

“Um. Wait a minute. Can you just give me a while to collect my thoughts? Please,” he begged. 

Then he got his stuff together and started to explain what he was thinking about. 

“So. Yes. I’m Takashi Shirogane. Please, call me Shiro. You have the correct room.” 

“You just want to forget the random confession.” 

Maybe. Just maybe. Shiro wanted him to do that. But he also knew he would never forgive himself if he said yes. So, he took the plunge. 

“No! Please don’t. I do like you. Really. It’s just that you’re cute and you were right there, and I wasn’t expecting that. Then I messed up. Then you got annoyed and I messed up again. Then you said the stuff about forgetting and now I’m rambling. Sorry about that. But I definitely do not want you to forget that. I hope that you won’t. Unless you want to. Then you’re welcome to. Just, uh, do whatever ‘cause I think you’re really cute and smart and a lot of other positive adjectives and I kinda hope that you’ll accept my feelings. Well, obviously, you don’t have to. I mean it would be nice, but you don’t have to. Especially since you don’t really know me. Oh geez. You don’t really know me. Sorry. This probably out of the blue. Geez, Shiro, you didn’t even ask if he was gay! You should’ve asked! He’s probably straight and listening to this and you’re rambling like an idiot. Geez, you did it again you bumbling buff-” 

“I’m gay.” 

“Oh.” 

Oh, indeed. 

4\. 

“Sooooo....Adam.” 

“Yes, Shiro?” 

“Wanna date?” 

“Sure.” 

“Really?! Oh geez! That’s great! Um. I’ll pick you up at six tomorrow! Don’t die!” 

“Alright,” Adam chuckled. 

And that’s how Shiro got a date with a cute boy. With a very cute smile and laugh. Isn’t positivity wonderful? Wait. He didn’t have anything planned. What was he doing?! Geez. Um. What did Adam like? Food? Didn’t everyone like food? Sweets! Something sweet would be great. Something they could share. Shiro wanted a cold shareable sweet that would be perfect for the summer time. Unfortunately, the only thing that came into his mind was the classic movie scene where they share a milkshake. As perfect as that would be, it would also be dangerous for his stomach. That didn’t matter somehow. He would sacrifice everything for Adam. Maybe that was going too far. He should probably not follow that train of thought. 

And that’s how Shiro ended up in one of the worst and greatest dates of his life. Adam was having a great time and was looking cute. He had dressed up in a cute sweater and was giggling. Which was cute. Because Adam was cute. Anything related to Adam was cute. Even babies. Babies are gross. Except when they were next to Adam. Then they were cute. How cute. They had ordered a chocolate milkshake to share and they were casually talking before it arrived. It seemed to loom above Shiro even though Shiro was still taller than it. This was what the date was depending on. He would have to brave this dairy monstrosity before he would be able to kiss Adam goodbye. 

Then he did it. 

Then he regretted it. 

Then he ruined the date by hiding in the bathroom. 

Then Adam saved the date by taking Shiro back to his room and staying with him until his stomach got better. 

Then they made out, and it was glorious. Adam tasted sweet, and Shiro found himself addicted. Those plush lips drew him in and enticed him with their redness. Shiro quickly took control and plunged his tongue into the wet heat that was Adam’s mouth. He didn’t stop until he had to go to the bathroom again. 

5\. 

Space. Finally. At what cost, though? He had to give up so much. He had to leave Adam. Beautiful Adam. With his dazzling smile and funny jokes. Adam, if you were here what would you do? Shiro thought. Probably take care of everyone just like you did with Keith. You would help Keith come to terms with himself and his feelings for Lance. You would cook in the kitchen with Hunk. You would make sure that Pidge went to sleep. You’d probably get along the most with Lance. You two would make jokes and everyone would laugh while Keith pined from a distance. I miss you. 

There was no way to contact Adam in space. It made him lonely. He wanted to cry. Except he was the leader of Voltron. He wasn’t allowed to cry. Any weakness would be used against him and if the Galra found out about Adam they would definitely be able to use that against him. 

Still. He wouldn’t stop thinking about how wonderful Adam was. All Shiro wanted was to say goodbye properly. To kiss those perfect lips one more time. To hold him close and try to never let go before they were separated once more. It was all he wanted. 

He missed Earth. When Lance came back with a cow, memories of wanting to be a farmer when he was younger sprang up in his mind. After that, Shiro drank his sorrows away. 

1\. 

Home. He had missed it so much. The grass. The air. There was so much, and space seemed so empty and cold compared to Earth. They had finally returned to Earth. They had defeated the Galra and they were free. Keith had finally confessed to Lance and now they were dating. Shiro would say that they were a perfect couple, but he wouldn’t because he did not enjoy Lance’s moans entering his ears in the early hours of the day. When he had tried to complain to Keith, Keith just reminded Shiro of the number of times he and Adam had done that. Which was fair. The thought of Adam made his heart clench and he wondered if Adam still worked at the Garrison. Where was he now? After Shiro had left, what did Adam do? Did he cry or did he accept it silently and moved on? Did he hold onto the ring from Shiro or did he throw it away so he would never have to see it again? Questions filled his mind as the team approached Earth. 

Immediately after he had landed, he was tackled. He landed on the ground with an oof and tried to take in his surroundings. He was still on the Garrison landing pad, but he was on the floor. He could feel a weight on top of him and some liquid was seeping into his shirt around the chest area. He looked down and saw a man. He was around his size, but the other man was just a little bit smaller. Shiro was confused. The brown hair seemed familiar and he had to hold back from patting it. It was very cute. 

Then it dawned on him. This was Adam. His fiancé. The love of his life. The one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. It was the person he always had wanted. Beautiful Adam. Cute Adam. Adorable Adam. He couldn’t take it. Simultaneously, he hugged back, and Adam sobbed harder. Tears flooded between them and Shiro knew that his shirt was completely ruined. Somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to care. Everything bubbled over and he couldn’t stop the compliments coming out of his mouth. They rushed out without a care and Shiro could feel that Adam had been waiting. Waiting just for Shiro. 

Later that night they made a promise. They promised to love each other. It sounded cliché, but it was all Shiro wanted. It was like his whole life had led up to that point. 

“Takashi, no matter what I will never forget our first date. It was unique. Special. It was ours. Now, you’re back from a long intergalactic war where you died, came back to life, and fought to defend us all. I would be a fool to turn you down. Not because of all you’ve done, but because even though you did all those things you never forgot me. Somehow. Now, I can’t see myself without you. I can’t imagine having to take another picture without you. The world had stopped without you.” 

He didn’t want to cry. But Shiro knew that he was going to anyway. 

“Adam, I would never be able to forget you. You were my first love. My only love. You stuck with me through thick and thin. I can’t tell you enough how much I love you. I could try but I would fail. There are so many things I want to tell you. So many things I want to share with you. I never want to be without you. You bring so much light into my life. I love you. I’ll never be able to tell you that phrase enough.” 

They crossed arms and drank their milk even though they were both lactose intolerant.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're wondering why Adam's lactose intolerant it's because he's Indian in this story. India is still a part of Asia. Therefore, Adam is Indian and lactose intolerant (to some degree).
> 
> Please leave a comment and give some feedback on the story.
> 
> Thanks,  
> pcctheant


End file.
